A safeguard : the example of the UPCP in France

The UPCP (Union pour la culture populaire) is an organization which regroups many unions. Their aim is to protect a local and regional heritage like music, dance, language, etc... Those archives (orals or written) are preserved under the protection of the CERDO (Centre d'étude, de recherche et de documentation sur l'oralité). In France, the CERDO is a good example of oral archives and their management.
The archives collected by the UPCP are called " unreleased oral archives ". The UPCP recognizes that the definition could be woolly so a list was established :
- radio programmes with a media purpose.
- ethnologic, sociological and linguistic investigations : songs, musics, tales, lifetime stories which were recorded and collected for scientist documentation and/or for the wish to preserve an heritage.
- historical investigation : political speeches and debates.
- artistic creations which were recorded like concerts and plays.
Those archives are unique and precious. This is a way to preserve a part of our heritage, even if we are not from the region.  A know-how can enrich that we can call an oral heritage. It is about orality and exchange.
This safeguard raises also the question of medium. Archivists can use different media for oral archives : cylinders, records with a gramophone, magnetic bands and minidisc. The recording is analogical (cylinder and records) or digital (minidisc) or both (magnetic band). This point leads to another one : digitalization and data migration. Digitalization becomes necessary and inevitable for the safeguard. What we can listen today (a melody, a song or a speech) has to be preserved for the future. It is an heritage and a legacy from our society, our past, from people who shared their knowledge about a part of our culture. So the UPCP part is very important. It is always about choices : preserving or throwing away. But the stakes are  real in a society influenced by what  comes next, not what  was before. So those archives have to follow progress. Oblivion is like  sword of Damocles for them. Archivists and unions have to work hand in hand for the sake of this oral culture.
Of course, future hasn't to be denied. Technological progress involves a preparation for archivists and unions.

Flore-Hélène Fischer

Preparation for creation of oral archives

Firstly, we wonder who is in charge of  creating and collecting these archives. Some people think that archivists haven't got  enough time to do it and they haven't been trained to create oral archives. Indeeed,  creating oral archives sparks off specialised knowledge. Archivist has to manage these records when he receives it. Historians can conduct an interview because he has knowledge to contextualize the investigations, he  has got specialized knowledge about his field of investigation.
However, in other countries, the archivist has to participate to oral investigations. Indeed,  he has to  know textual sources  to conduct an investigation. As he creates these archives himself, archivist  could  describe it, collect and select it  in the best conditions.  Some countries defend this point of view like Singapore,  Canada, Malaya. Nevertheless, archivists have to formate to conduct an  oral investigation. New training courses have opened to specialize some archivists to do it. For example, a course was created in EBAD to Dakar.
Creating oral archives takes a lot of time for an archivist. Firstly, he has to find documents about subjects of investigations. He has to get informed about the historical context of investigation, the job of the interviewed person. He has to master his subject and persuade the person to confess to him.
There exist several kinds of interviews.The first interview consists in holding out a mike and let people talk freely. However, this kind of interview is risky because the person can move avay from initial subject.It is a free interview.
Another inteview consists in ask too long questions and the witness answers briefly and recordings are unusable for history research because it doesn't bring new information about the subject.
So, archivist has to prepare a grill of questions which enables to obtain the most precious answers of witness.
An interview can last one hour to several hours of recordings.
Archivist has to master technics of recordings. In the 1960's, archivists or historians used tape recorder. Then, Compact disc was invented in the 1980's. Now, they use digital technologies. It is possible to obtain the text of interviews today with sophisiticated appliances.
When archivist finished an interview, he has to give an identification on these recordings (material support or electronic file). Then, he has to describe it, he has to write a biographical note about the witness. He has to transcribe again the text of investigation (eight hours for one hour of recording). These steps  lead to classifying these archives and write finding aids which enable the exploration of  these archives by users.

Oral archives in France

French oral archives are more recent than American oral archives. This began with interrogation of people who don't usually appear in history book. They are the   workers, the artisans.".An oral history” developped which took methods of journalism and politicals sciences with narratives of remarquables, and political personnalities. First, it is the ethnology which develops exploitation of oral archives. These had a real public interest. 

The first investigation began in the 1960's. Several historians used oral archives to make their thesis. For example,  Antoine Prost interviewed ex-servicemen to illustrate his thesis intitled Les anciens combattants et la société française.Another example, Jean Delmas defended his thesis of Ecole nationale des Chartes thanks to magnetic tapes about occitan words of buidling.At this time, the oral recordings are transcribed again in a written version to be conserved. Indeed, they didn't know long this recordings could be conserved and used with quality. These interviews became specific sources.

After individual initiatives, associations created their oral heritage. These projects aimed to make attractive regional identities. André Parcher threw this project in Poitou Charente, interviewing peasants within an association  "Union pour la culture populaire en Poitou-Charentes".

 The History of present times developed in the 1970's with the exploration of audiovisual sources.However, this method is criticized by a lot of historians because  witnesses are still alive and he could give a false reality of events.

Faced with to success of oral history, several institutions of  the French state decided to create a  service in charge of collecting oral recordings. In 1974, the Service historique  de l'Armée de l'air created  a section of oral archives thanks to  initiative of General Christenne. He had this idea after he discovered oral history in the United States. This section wasr esponsible to interview aviators of the World War I.

Unlikely other oral history projects, these institutions led a critrical historical studies about recordings. This work aimed to improve informations.

In the 1980's, some departments constituted corpus of archives of oral history.For example, department of Finances created the CHEFF (Comity for economic and financial  history of France) in 1986.This comity aims to promote economic and financial history of France since Middle ages.It has to enable to constitute historical sources for historical research. Historians sit in Scientific committee. Archivists work in this comity and they have to collect, classify, conserve and communicate records of ministry and other collections of archives about financial and economic history. This comity has collected  narratives of 300 persons since the beginning of Comity.It represents 3000 hours of recordings. in the majority of cases, These interviews are biographical, and describe professional career of interviewed persons (majority inspectors of finances). An anthology of these recordings was published and entitled Les voix des finances. 20 governement officials  talk about rebuilding of the country after World War II,as the birth of European economic Community.

Florence Descamps, L'historien, l'archiviste et le magnétophone

Then local communities have followed this movement.

Gwendoline CLAY.